Archive for Divorce Expert Witness

VOCATIONAL ASSESSMENT IN DIVORCE -FAMILY LAW CASES is used to determine spouse earning capacity, spousal support, alimony or rehabilitative alimony

Often divorcing parties are in need of a Divorce Vocational Expert Witness that can perform a vocational assessment to determine reasonable and realistic expectations of an individual’s present and future employability, placeability, and earning capacity. A vocational evaluation gathers and assesses information from the individual’s work history and education and research he local labor market to make these determinations

Findings, documented in a vocational examination report, are often pertinent to the determination of the amount and duration of spousal and child support.

Most vocational assessments in divorce the vocational expert witness testimony for family law should analyze, summarize, document expert findings, which include information on location, cost and duration of education and training (if needed), availability of geographically convenient, current and future job openings, salary data and approximate job search time.

SouthEast Vocational Experts reports, the conclusions and expert opinions based on an in-depth interview with the person being evaluated, vocational assessment testing (if needed) to determine career values, marketable skills and occupational options, as well as vocational testing to determine abilities. Labor market research is conducted based on the data collected about the person being examined and four copies of the report are produced.

In Today’s Economic Environment: Individuals have a variety of personal, economic, work place factors, career, and job changes are more frequent than ever. Increasingly, this results in supporting spouses attempting to modify support orders to reflect their change in circumstances, raising the question of earning capacity versus actual earnings.

Often one spouse or the court has questioned motives of the supporting spouse’s career change when it results in lowered earnings. In some states courts have held that a support award could be based on a supporting spouse’s earning capacity even when there is not a deliberate attempt to refuse to maintain or seek gainful employment.

As the work place and the local labor market continue to change, the vocational expert can be a valuable asset in providing current, specific, realistic expectations regarding employability, placeability, and earning capacity of either a supporting or supported spouse.

Why use a Vocational Evaluation in a Divorce Case:

Top Ten common reasons to use a Vocational Expert – Employability Expert in Family Law Cases:

Evaluate the current and future earning capacity and employability of a supported/supporting spouse.

Estimate a realistic length of time for a supported or supporting spouse to find work in the current labor market.

Assess efforts of a supported/supporting spouse to seek employment, build a business or explore career options.

Earning Capacity Evaluation (ECE) is part of a Vocational Evaluation of an individuals ability to work and earn wages Pre- Injury/Incident and Post-Injury/Incident that is the subject of the litigation. This evaluation is often done in Divorce, Personal Injury, and Wrongful death cases.

In Personal Injury and Wrongful death its called diminished earnings capacity and lost earnings capacity.

The key word here is ability. If it is a child what would their ability be, if it’s an adult were they maximizing their earning ability? A plaintiff’s wage-earning history may or may not be presumptive of their earning capacity prior to the event that is the subject of the litigation. The vocational expert will provide an individual-specific analysis to provide objective evaluations of a plaintiff’s ability to work and earn wages.

In order for this testimony to be accepted in court it must be performed in a manner consistent with widely used, peer-reviewed and published RAPEL methodology, an earning capacity evaluation provides information regarding the plaintiff’s lost wages and diminished (or lost) future earning capacity arising from the injuries sustained in the event that is the subject of the litigation.

An Earning Capacity Evaluation is also used in Labor / Employment and Family Law / Domestic Relations, where the earning capacity of a spouse may be at issue. An ECE can be done in any case where the ability to work and earn wages is in dispute.

SouthEast Vocational Experts can be retained in cases involving children or young adults without an earnings history. In such cases, the peer-reviewed and published PEEDS-RAPEL methodology is used.

An ECE can also be done in a wrongful death case. While many attorneys believe that a forensic economist is the only expert who is capable of doing such an analysis, that is incorrect; since an earnings history alone may not always be presumptive of earning capacity, it often falls to the vocational rehabilitation expert to first evaluate the earning capacity of a decedent prior to the forensic economist’s involvement in the case.

When Should an Earning Capacity Evaluation Be Done?

An earning capacity evaluation should be done anytime a plaintiff claims a permanent physical or mental impairment, arising from the injuries sustained in the event that is the subject of the litigation, that could affect their ability to work. The presence of permanent impairment alone, however, does not mean that one has sustained a loss of earning capacity. Other factors, such as functional limitations arising from the impairment, must also be determined.

SouthEast vocational experts are available for consultation to determine if all the data necessary to perform this evaluation has been provided at the time of referral and, if necessary, assist the referral source in gathering the necessary data for an ECE to be completed.

We can provide services in all 50 states of the U.S., however we concentrate on the Southeast States we do the most work in: Alabama, Florida Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina , South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia.

VOCATIONAL EVALUATION IN FAMILY LAW CASES is used to determine spouse earning capacity, spousal support, alimony or rehabilitative alimony

Often divorcing parties are in need of a Divorce Expert Witness that can perform a vocational evaluation to determine reasonable and realistic expectations of an individual’s present and future employability, placeability, and earning capacity. A vocational evaluation gathers and assesses information from the individual’s work history and education and research he local labor market to make these determinations

Findings, documented in a vocational examination report, are often pertinent to the determination of the amount and duration of spousal and child support.

Most vocational evaluations and divorce expert witness testimony in family law should analyze, summarize, document expert findings, which include information on location, cost and duration of education and training (if needed), availability of geographically convenient, current and future job openings, salary data and approximate job search time.

SouthEast Vocational Experts reports, the conclusions and expert opinions based on an in-depth interview with the person being evaluated, vocational assessment testing (if needed) to determine career values, marketable skills and occupational options, as well as vocational testing to determine abilities. Labor market research is conducted based on the data collected about the person being examined and four copies of the report are produced.

In Today’s Economic Environment: Individuals have a variety of personal, economic, work place factors, career, and job changes are more frequent than ever. Increasingly, this results in supporting spouses attempting to modify support orders to reflect their change in circumstances, raising the question of earning capacity versus actual earnings.

Often one spouse or the court has questioned motives of the supporting spouse’s career change when it results in lowered earnings. In some states courts have held that a support award could be based on a supporting spouse’s earning capacity even when there is not a deliberate attempt to refuse to maintain or seek gainful employment.

As the work place and the local labor market continue to change, the vocational expert can be a valuable asset in providing current, specific, realistic expectations regarding employability, placeability, and earning capacity of either a supporting or supported spouse.

Why use a Vocational Evaluation in a Divorce Case:

Top Ten common reasons to use a Vocational Expert – Employability Expert in Family Law Cases:

Evaluate the current and future earning capacity and employability of a supported/supporting spouse.

Estimate a realistic length of time for a supported or supporting spouse to find work in the current labor market.

Assess efforts of a supported/supporting spouse to seek employment, build a business or explore career options.

Divorce Expert Witness

VOCATIONAL EVALUATION IN FAMILY LAW CASES is used to determine spouse earning capacity, spousal support, alimony or rehabilitative alimony

Often divorcing parties are in need of a Divorce Expert Witness that can perform a vocational evaluation to determine reasonable and realistic expectations of an individual’s present and future employability, placeability, and earning capacity. A vocational evaluation gathers and assesses information from the individual’s work history and education and research he local labor market to make these determinations

Findings, documented in a vocational examination report, are often pertinent to the determination of the amount and duration of spousal support, alimony, and rehabilitative alimony.

Most vocational evaluations and divorce expert witness testimony in family law should analyze, summarize, document expert findings, which include information on location, cost and duration of education and training (if needed), availability of geographically convenient, current and future job openings, salary data and approximate job search time.

SouthEast Vocational Experts reports, the conclusions and expert opinions based on an in-depth interview with the person being evaluated, vocational assessment testing (if needed) to determine career values, marketable skills and occupational options, as well as vocational testing to determine abilities. Labor market research is conducted based on the data collected about the person being examined and four copies of the report are produced.

In Today’s Economic Environment: Individuals have a variety of personal, economic, work place factors, career, and job changes are more frequent than ever. Increasingly, this results in supporting spouses attempting to modify support orders to reflect their change in circumstances, raising the question of earning capacity versus actual earnings.

Often one spouse or the court has questioned motives of the supporting spouse’s career change when it results in lowered earnings. In some states courts have held that a support award could be based on a supporting spouse’s earning capacity even when there is not a deliberate attempt to refuse to maintain or seek gainful employment.

As the work place and the local labor market continue to change, the vocational expert can be a valuable asset in providing current, specific, realistic expectations regarding employability, placeability, and earning capacity of either a supporting or supported spouse.

Why use a Vocational Evaluation in a Divorce Case:

Top Ten common reasons to use a Vocational Expert – Employability Expert in Family Law Cases:

Evaluate the current and future earning capacity and employability of a supported/supporting spouse.

Estimate a realistic length of time for a supported or supporting spouse to find work in the current labor market.

Assess efforts of a supported/supporting spouse to seek employment, build a business or explore career options.